This is a multi-family social housing development located close to downtown Montreal. It incorporates an abandoned utility building that served previously as a hospital. The overall development included the restoration of this building together with new structures, and totals 9,497m2 in 91 residential units.
The Vancouver Island University’s [VIU] Deep Bay Marine Field Station is a new 1,200 m2 facility located on a three hectare unserviced waterfront site at the south end of scenic Bayne’s Sound, 65 km north of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. As an extension of VIU Centre for Shellfish Research Nanaimo Campus, the new Field Station will accommodate research and educational programs devoted to the development of a sustainable shellfish aquaculture industry on Vancouver Island. The new facility will also support the public educational objectives set by the Centre.
Through the renovation and conversion of a historic structure this project has created a dramatic, modern and sustainable building. The project took a redundant 1940s schoolhouse, located in East Vancouver’s historic Strathcona neighbourhood, and transformed it into five distinctive residential units for the client and his extended family.
The False Creek Energy Centre [FCEC] is an innovative heating plant that produces domestic hot water and space heating for the Neighbourhood Energy Utility [NEU] that serves Vancouver’s emerging South East False Creek community.
Located on the outskirts of Calgary, the Shepard wetland is part of a 227ha storm water management initiative to improve the quality of storm water entering the Bow River. Development of this site also creates an open water habitat for wildlife. It is a regionally significant migratory and breeding habitat for waterfowl, and will provide important connections with surrounding wetland areas.
The 100,000m2, 42-storey RBC Centre built by Cadillac Fairview at Simcoe and Wellington Streets in downtown Toronto is the result of a creative collaboration between the developer and its anchor tenants, RBC and RBC Dexia. The project dispels common misconceptions in the real-estate industry by demonstrating that green buildings with new ideas and advanced environmental technologies need not cost more.
This urban infill lot stood vacant for 20 years, despite its prime location at the crest of a ravine, overlooking a river and parkland, just one kilometer from the city centre London, ON.
By Jim Taggart
Jury Comments: Built in the long-established Forest Hill neighbourhood of luxury homes in Toronto, the 4,000sf infill home is 30% less in size compared to typical homes of the area. An interior slate-finished wall behind the stair acts as a heat sink, and also functions as an organizing element for the beautiful interior. Sustainability features, such as the reduced footprint, use of durable materials, and careful orientation to maximize natural light, are not radical but are well considered.
The Canada Green Building Council [CaGBC] held its 3rd Annual Conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre June 8-10, supported by BC Hydro’s Powersmart. With the past two years being such successful events for the industry, this year was expected to be bigger and better than ever: a goal that was met with 1,300 attendees over the two days, making this still relatively young event the largest green building conference in Canada.
Jury comments: The building is a stand-out as the renovation of a mundane 1960s University of British Columbia building that takes the assets of the old building and improves them. A revised colourful and vibrant glazed facade signals the rebirth life of the building, and the new five-storey construction cleverly adds an atrium that introduces more useable interior space with natural light and ventilation. The strategy to use waste steam from the district heating plant for heating and cooling is innovative.
